Drawings & Paintings ppower arts

[ppowersteef]

I see everyone hyping up for the SOTG, which makes it a perfect moment to make my monthly update!

Monthly Art Batch!
...alright, let's see what I've all done last month...

...

Ohright, I copied my art folder instead that I've taken the whole thing, so the copy shares the same date..
uhhh...I'll try to remember them for now.:v

---Artworks---

Well, last month I've been trying to take a break to rest out, (but it appears I'm still feeling tired, so I feel something went wrong there)
I havn't focussed on big drawings this time, as I was busy setting things over to my new PC, and playing games I wasn't able to play before

But for now, I've continued the gift arts for friends, as shown below:

And I've worked on some new OC designs, remember the Char Design Series from last year?

It's funny how, despite they're basically all new, it feels like I knew them for a long time.
They've been in my mind for quite a while, and I'm glad to have worked them out, even if it's just the lineart.
I've heard the first few were all keepers and favorites from friends, so that was a fun sight to see. Do you also have a favorite out of them?

Spoiler: more doodles

(All images broke in the editor, so I've to guess what they were, lol)

One quick doodle of a new girl that headstarted the char design series.
She's Latina, she wants to be a pegasus rider, wears platinum armor, and is a member of Silvyne's kingdom.

First new PC doodle to test the program:

I've done a Fire Emblem: Geanology of the Holy War playthrough, and midway, I decided to spice it up and make the permadeath more impactful (by not resetting when someone dies)
This transformed the run into a rollercoaster of losses. or more a rollercoaster on stereoids. Because boy, a lot of things went downhill.
But...it felt also way more unique, way more personal. This was actually the case that differentiate Fire Emblem from other RPG's, and the feeling of grief actually adds to the story, and the way you cope with them. I felt more related to the characters than ever before. It was very special, and I think I should do more nuzlockes like these in the future.

Pics out of context:

---Gamedev---
I released the little update that I had planned last month:

Update 1.0.1 - Shepherd by ppowersteef

Hey all, After I've recovered a bit, I've decided to wrap up the Shepherd update that I had in mind. I went experimenting with this update and cleaned up some of the code/functions. and also brought a...

ppowersteef.itch.io

Not much has changed since last month, mostly due to the new PC and gaming month, so this section has been shorter than I expected.
But I rather wanted to release the game in it's current state than having to put an update on hold for an unknown amount of time, so the catalog update is out now.

Next month is my vacation(And birthday! ), and I've been looking forward to it again. Also Xenoblades 3 release, on my birthday, they sure know how to time it well
Usually I've spend my vacations doing wild stuff with gamedev, but I want to try and see if I can fill the gap with something else.
One of the things I had in mind were the things I want to be known for again, and if I had to highlight something, it would be the "Final Boss Series" I did in the past.
So I've been making a list, and I think I've a good amount of new big drawings to do again. Hopefully I'll be able to work them out for the rest of the year.
And other than that, I'll probably work out my list of friend arts too. And maybe colorise the new char designs too. I like to see them more fleshed out.

Looking forward to next month again, happy vacations in advance!

 

[Ivyss]

Do you also have a favorite out of them?

Either animals (could be biased though because I simply prefer non-humans over humans) or code boi. Though I do also like swordmaster and space dad.

 

[Vitrolic Medicine]

Do you also have a favorite out of them?

The Nomadic tribe hero feels familiar, like... did I see this in Age of Empires before? But... rookies are favourites.

 

[ppowersteef]

The Nomadic tribe hero feels familiar, like... did I see this in Age of Empires before? But... rookies are favourites.

It's inspired by Age of Empires 4's Mongols Khan. (More or less a hero unit).
Along with the Sacae tribe from Fire Emblem, who are nomads as well, it inspired me to dive deeper in the nomadic tribes.

They all have a bit of an inspiration source/backstory like this, I might want to work that out too.

 

[ppowersteef]

It's been a while since I've done one of those "Final Boss"/"Epic Boss Fights" series, and I'm planning to make a new series of them.
This time it's Sora's turn (the one from Suguri it is).

(Yes, I'm refraining away from my monthly posts for this, it's my art thread, my rules. :v)

Those who have played 100% Orange Juice might recognise the characters better, as Sora is one of the games a part of the characters originated from:

Sora is pretty interesting, it was the first Bullet Hell I've played last year, and it hits right in my spot.
It might be a strange game with flying anime girls destroying war machines, and eventually fighting each other 1 by 1 that somehow are more endurable than the entire level.
But the air combat is so epic and natural, it kept up the intensity constantly, and to not forget about the bosses.
And to not even mention the music! I love techno/trance music! And Sora was full of them! Whether it be the level or the boss fights, I've enjoyed all of them, and there isn't any bad one at all.

Now getting to the story, even though there's only like 6-7 levels, I became immersed into the short story, which fitted really well atmospheric with the music.
Sora was created to be the Ultimate weapon, even if she didn't had the choice of it.
But after defeating every opposing foe, resisting her best friend to return home, and defeating her second-to-best ultimate weapon, there was still one more threat to the war, one threat to the whole world.
The moment of realisation for Sora, "I have the power to stop this", the power of the ultimate weapon, hitted hard.

Then with the Final Boss, Star Breaker, there was something about the intensity in this fight in her first form that I've enjoyed more than her second form, perhaps because it was just 1v1, with equal strength and sizes.
But even then, Star Breaker sure heated things up a lot, with explosions setting off every second, fire surrounding her, ambushing Sora straight after their talk, and the ominious black orb surrounding the red sky. This intensity is also matched by her music track, 'Novation', playing in the background.

What I also found incredible from a personal experience, is that my laptop runned the game slower, allowing myself a bit more reaction time over the long run, lol), but that also caused Star Breaker's hyper to activate right when the calming part of 'Novation' kicked in. Which was just really beautiful timed, as despite the intensity the whole fight went, there's still a grasp of beauty to get from it.

Of course, there was also a second form, which may or may not be a bigger favorite, but if the game ended with this fight, I would've left satisfied as well.

(To not even mention the Bonus Boss....oohhhh boyyy)

 

[ppowersteef]

Monthly Art Batch time!

It was my birthday last week!

I initially had planned to update this on my birthday, but I feel like I should be spending that day for myself.
Soo, I've decided to update it now, yeey

---Artworks---

First off, a Birthday drawing for myself. Taking some inspiration from anime covers.
The boy at the bottom actually represents IRL me, the code boi

And some more drawings done, suprisingly a lot actually, with more ideas to come!

Spoiler

Continueing the gift arts for friends.
From left to right:
Yoshikunes, W1K, Miltvala & Sodapone, Sodapone as the Aegis, Criddle, Aurora3500 and Darthmorf

Attempting to do animation again.
In need to find better tools though, saving every frame seperately gets tiresome quick.

Some more Xenoblades related doodles (Xenoblade 3 release time, yeeeet!)
Also from left to right, Eunie from XB3, Zeke von Genbu/Zeke/Zekenator from XB2, and my own characters as if they'd appeared in Xenoblades.
I've also recently finished Xenoblades 2, and man...it sure has been a ride. I actually think I'm gonna miss it to play.

Ninja plant:

And some out of context doodles:

---Gamedev---
Begin this month I've been participating my first gamejam! And it was a blast!
Several code friends have joined as well, and it was fun hanging out together.
I also have done my submission too, although small, I still find it impressive to create something like this in such a short amount of time.
Maybe I'll try doing this more often, but no guarantees on that.

Dice Roller by ppowersteef

A game made for GMTK Jam

ppowersteef.itch.io

Check also out the games of fellow devs: W1K, Ajidot and Connery0:

d100 by W1K, Maybesuweeka

Feeding Frenzy with funny dice

w1k.itch.io

KeepRollin by ajidot918

A dice platformer where your roll determines how hard the next platforms will be!

ajidot918.itch.io

Dice Maker Toolkit by Connery0, alynte

connery0.itch.io

As for other games, I've ideas, but those are just ideas, not even concepts.
So I've yet to see when that'll happen, likely after I'm done with all the things I've wanted to draw though.

And that's all for now, gonna continue enjoying my vacation! Yeeeet!

 

[ppowersteef]

Time for another part of the "Final Boss Rush" series.

This time, it's from a fight that's actually far from the final boss, not even the semi-final boss either.
But this boss actually surpasses the final boss by a good amount.

It's a fight from one of the first few indie games I've played, which is Pardoner Fennel from Momodora:

Spoiler: context behind

So what makes this fight so great?

Pardoner Fennel is actually a character that is not introduced before the fight, but it was made clear that she was actually on the same side as you, but went opposing due to a misunderstanding.
She was very determined, and with the same good will. I even mistook her as the main character when I saw her first.
It was tragic to see how the two heroes were fighting each other to the death.

Her fighting style felt hostile, but yet also elegant, and with the smooth animations, it felt like both characters did a "combat dance".
Seeing them dancing under the light of the stained glass, along with the music really made the fight felt emotional. to add to that, the theme that played was also called "Pardoner's dance", and is even part of the trailer theme.

Fennel's attacks were fast, but if you take the time, you could actually telegraph all her attacks well. making the fight still feel fair and balanced.
And she also fought like she was on even ground with the protagonist, for something that usually has a big boss with slow attacks, this boss instead could've been a playable character as well.

The battle was pretty difficult at that state of the game, but it's also the most beautiful, and in my view, the highlight of the game, if not the entire series.
Even still, I often refer to this fight when I talk about boss design, along with a fellow gamedev, this has been such a great example of a platformer boss fight that I'd love to see been used by other games.

Fanart about Pardoner Fennel has been done a lot already, but it's for a good reason, it's such a well done boss fight.

On a sidenote, should I do this more often? To post this part of the "Boss series" as seperate posts instead of been part of the monthly art batch?
I've been doing the latter for so long, it feels almost weird to go back to the usual "just posting whenever I've drawn something".

 

[Vitrolic Medicine]

Quite interesting game you picked. Also yea, do this.

 

[ppowersteef]

Quite interesting game you picked.

It's almost nostalgic, been one of the first indie metroidvanias I've played.
And fell in love with it when I discovered it's an indie series, and watching it grow with each new game.

To this day, it keeps inspiring me.

 

[CausticWarrior🌳]

Really Cool!

 

[ppowersteef]

Whoops, already on the 4th day of September.
I...forgot...Pehaps played too much AoE4 lately

Anyways, Monthly Art Batch!

Well, surely I havn't done a lot last month, due to Xenoblades and Age of Empires, right?
...wait, it's actually a lot, woah.
Sometimes I'm even suprised with what I'm all capable off.

---Artworks---
Starting off with the Highlight, 3 characters for people I've wanted to draw to: Suweeka, Corenality and Skipmore:
The Suweeka one is actually in reference when he drew Nageru in the same pose, I've loved to pay that one back in the same way:

And with this, the full gift batch of "Gifts I wanted to give to friends and people I appreciate", this has become one of my favorite batches to date:

Spoiler: moar artworks

Some more gift arts to friends seperated:

No comment...
My Discords is infested with Rats everytime I visit because there's a rat fanatic on each Discord Server I'm in.
I decided to embrace it:

I also went coloring the new OC designs I did earlier, and these have also resulted well:


Lora from Xenoblade Chronicles 2!
Who would've thought that with all the big and special girls around, it's the common girl that ended up been my favorite:
(Still the protagonist in the DLC though, it was a great ride, haha)

Final Fantasy 7 doodle, at the moment you had to choose between 2 out of 4 part members.
Obviously, I went for the girls, and there was a funny interaction after that:

Suweeka's Haqu Butt wings are real, and they also fly like this:

Spoiler: confirmation

Tangent Character, if you see it, you can't unsee:

A specific Torchic went complaining about her, she gave her opinion:

Alternate ending:

---Gamedev---

So, I've wanted to go back to gamedev again, and had 2 ideas in mind to work on.
I've decided to make concept pieces of the 2 games in mind:

Both were ideas that have been in mind for a long time, and both were things I really wanted to see it happen.
But it's likely that if I work on one idea, the next idea won't be happening for at least a few years, so there has been a fight of thoughts going to my mind.
Funny enough also with the featured characters that were basically polar opposides of each other.
They were supposed to never meet, but here we are:

However...I've finally come to a solution:
Since the "Nageru's Path" Idea was actually primairly focussed to just get the Alraune in my game, and somehow manage to design a whole game around it, then I'm actually going to try getting the Alraune still into the base game of HertenHeld, and then make the long scrapped "Dark Forest" idea a reality after all.

I'm looking forward how this update will result into:

And that's all for now, I love to stay productive, but it's important to relax every now and then as well.
Once rested out enough, you'll have more strength the next day.

Good luck with the new start of a new school year!

 

[Vitrolic Medicine]

Still cannot get the answer of 'how do butt-wings work'. Maybe they work upside down?

 

[AVARUS ODIUM]

Just wanted to hop in here and say that your art is really neat! For whatever reason, your art style in particular makes me realise that no two people draw the same way, and how literal 20 people could draw the same character, but have it turn out so vastly different. What I’m saying is, your art style is unique and something I’ve not seen anything similar to yet.

Cool stuff, I’ll be subscribing to this thread so I can see M o a r.

 

[ppowersteef]

Just wanted to hop in here and say that your art is really neat! For whatever reason, your art style in particular makes me realise that no two people draw the same way, and how literal 20 people could draw the same character, but have it turn out so vastly different. What I’m saying is, your art style is unique and something I’ve not seen anything similar to yet.

Cool stuff, I’ll be subscribing to this thread so I can see M o a r.

Thanks a lot! That feels great to hear!

 

[Schparks]

View attachment 381886

Good luck with the new start of a new school year!

I have a strong suspicion that the move pictured is a Donkey Kong fair...

I have to approve.

 

[ppowersteef]

I have a strong suspicion that the move pictured is a Donkey Kong fair...

I have to approve.

You're actually correct on that.
That makes 2 people that recognises the silly screen scribble

 

[XSlayer300]

Looking back at your artworks and all, I can see how much you've improved all over the months! Glad to see you're still active even to this day. There may not be any more requests any time soon (I guess?), but I'm happy that you're doing well despite the current state of the world lately.

 

[ppowersteef]

Looking back at your artworks and all, I can see how much you've improved all over the months! Glad to see you're still active even to this day. There may not be any more requests any time soon (I guess?), but I'm happy that you're doing well despite the current state of the world lately.

Thanks a lot!
I'm well, but I could be better, sitting still is something I've done for too long, and I can't handle stress as much as I used to.
Taking the necessary breaks to get fit is something to work on.

I might as well state that I'm no longer interested in opening requests again. And will likely move on to commissions once I have that interests back.

The periods of requests were a great time, one I've taken for a long while, but I also should see the value in my work too.

 

[ppowersteef]

FLOWEERRRRRRRRRRRRR

Wait...why are you even here?! Go play Terraria!
It's not my job to be some kids' [Extra Boss].



I'll be dumping the monthly files stored here, the temptations to play Terraria are too strong. :v

New Alpha ref dropped:
- Changed Chest armor to remove the cleavage. -20% attraction +100% practicallity
- Core Crystal moved from below the chest to above the chest +20% practically
- Glowing Ankles! Whoooo!
- Gunwings detail improved. +1000% style

Spoiler

As well as a new dynamic pose for Alpha, think I'll revisit this one later

Gift art for friends:

Deltarune Chapter 2 first anniversary:

Yaaaaaa!!! That's meeeeeeeee!!!!
Pics without context:

Yaaaaahhh, Now it's mine turn!
Good progress been made on me. Yayaya!
Progress so big, the file didn't even fit to upload! Very Good!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1571612306630672385

Except stuff happened, and Steef became tired and went out and played tons of AoE4 and Terraria...I bet now he's already off playing Terraria already

Perhaps more progress happen when all the hype cools down...that could take a few months...

...BUT....ONE DAY, I'LL MAKE MY FLOWERING RETURNN



MUWHWHWAHWHWHWEHEAH8WEW

...

 

[Esther]

This is the most relatable picture I've ever seen. The expression combined with the text is just perfection-